1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to glutaric acid virucidal processes, compositions, articles and packages.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It has been shown that colds caused by rhinoviruses can be transmitted from person to person or from person to object to person by way of the hands and that self-infection takes place by transfer of virus from the fingers to the nasal or conjunctival mucosa (Hendley et al., New England Journal of Medicine, vol. 288, pp. 1361-1364, 1973; Gwaltney et al., Annals of Internal Medicine, vol. 88, pp. 463-467, 1978). Similar transmission of other types of virus is also believed possible. To fill the resulting need for a topical virucidal substance and method of use and compositions thereof for interrupting the chain of virus transmission on nonliving surfaces and living tissues, especially on the hands, is therefore an object of invention. A further object of the invention is a method of reducing rhinovirus titers in the nasal passages of mammals infected by rhinoviruses using the topical virucidal substance. Still further objects of the invention are articles coated or impregnated with the virucidal substance to prevent viral contagion and packages for the virucidal substance, compositions and articles with instructions for virucidal use thereof.
Glutaric acid is a well-known organic compound having the structural formula EQU HOOCCH.sub.2 CH.sub.2 CH.sub.2 COOH.
Applicant is not aware of any prior art showing a pharmaceutical use of glutaric acid. Unsuccessful attempts to use glutaric acid for pharmaceutical purposes are shown by two prior art references.
Gershon et al. (Canadian Journal of Microbiology, vol. 22, no. 8, pp. 1198-1201, 1976) shows primarily that the dimethyl esters of the .alpha.,.omega.-alkanedicarboxYlic acids of 2-12, 14 and 16 carbon atoms have antifungal activity and secondarily and contrastingly that the dicarboxylic acids themselves have little or none of this property. The only results reported for the dicarboxylic acids are those disclosed in the paragraph bridging pages 1199 and 1200:
The dicarboxylic acids, HOOC(CH.sub.2).sub.n COOH, possessed little or no antifungal activity. With one exception, the only level at which toxicity to some of the test organisms was observed was at 10.sup.4 .mu.g/ml. The acids in which n=8 and 9 inhibited T. mentagrophytes at 10.sup.3 .mu.g/ml at pH 5.6 in the absence of beef serum.
These results show that noteworthy activity was observed only in the dicarboxylic acids wherein n is 8 or 9 and only at 10.sup.3 .mu.g/ml against one organism. No activity is reported specifically for glutaric acid wherein n is 3. In contrast the most active dimethyl ester was that wherein n is 7, which showed minimum inhibitory concentrations of 10.sup.3 .mu.g/ml against all six organisms and 10.sup.2 .mu.g/ml against one of the six organisms. Thus, the results show a diminishing trend of activity from the dimethyl esters wherein n is 7 to the dicarboxylic acids wherein n is 8 or 9 and away from glutaric acid wherein n is 3.
In a test against Sarcoma 180 tumor in mice glutaric acid was found to have no gradeable effect on the tumor (Stock et al., Cancer Research, vol. 20, pp. 193-195 and 236, 1960). The test was done by injection with a formulation of glutaric acid in a carboxymethylcellulose (0.5%)-saline vehicle.